Dealing with negativity can be quite a something.  I once had a coworker whose negative energy would wash over me on a daily basis.  In our conversations, she would complain endlessly about everything – work tasks, family, friends, health, and anything else she could think of.  She was also extremely cynical about others, often doubting their intentions and judging them harshly.  Talking to her wasn’t nice, to say the least.  The first time we had a meeting I felt completely drained.  Even though we spoke for just 30 minutes, I barely had any energy left after our conversation.  It felt as if someone had literally sucked the life out of me, and it took a couple hours for the effects to wear off.  The same thing happened the next few times we spoke too.  I quickly realized I needed to work out an action plan to deal with this kind of negative energy.  After all, she was not going to be the only negative person I was going to encounter in my life.  I gradually developed several key strategies for dealing with negative people effectively.  They have worked wonders in my own life, and now Marc and I use them to assist hundreds of coaching/course students we interact with on a weekly basis.  I’m hoping you find value in them too…  Negative people who wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions are hard to deal with.  They want people to join their 24/7 pity party so they can feel better about themselves.  And you may feel pressured to listen to their complaints simply because you don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a compassionate ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional drama.